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Clarke MacArthur Comparables…

Yesterday I posted an article on comparable players to Tyler Bozak so today I thought I’d tackle the Maple Leafs other key free agent forward, Clarke MacArthur. As with Bozak, I first looked at the offensive stats Goals/60, FirstAssists/60, Primary Points/60 and Primary Points % (percentage of goals scored while on the ice that the player had a goal or a first assist on). Here is a list of offensively comparable wingers:

Player Name

G/60

FirstA/60

PPts/60

PPts%

TLUSTY, JIRI

1.094

0.501

1.595

53.01%

PERRON, DAVID

0.991

0.521

1.512

55.75%

MACARTHUR, CLARKE

0.979

0.513

1.492

55.20%

SYKORA, PETR

0.916

0.593

1.509

56.01%

MOULSON, MATT

0.898

0.647

1.545

54.44%

SIMMONDS, WAYNE

0.891

0.563

1.454

59.61%

PARISE, ZACH

0.875

0.533

1.408

58.74%

OKPOSO, KYLE

0.867

0.591

1.458

59.71%

MALONE, RYAN

0.844

0.619

1.463

53.06%

MCGINN, JAMIE

0.796

0.703

1.499

57.10%

PARENTEAU, PIERRE

0.659

0.931

1.59

59.42%

The above list was selected for similar PPts/60 and PPts% to MacArthur and then sorted by G/60 and identifies the most comparable offensive players to MacArthur. McGinn and Parenteau are not the goal scorers of MacArthur and the others so probably deserve to be dropped from the list.

As an aside, it is quite hilarious to think that the Minnesota Wild have committed nearly $100M over 13 years to Parise when Parise’s best offensive comparable the past year+ is Kyle Okposo. The Wild better hope Parise gets back to his 2008-09 and 2009-10 form when he scored 83 goals and 176 points over that 2 year period or else they are spending a ton of money for a second tier winger.

So, what about defensively? In the Bozak article, to evaluate players defensively I looked at their corsi against per 20 minutes relative to their teammates corsi against per 20 minutes and suggested any players that improved their teammates corsi against is probably a decent defensive player. Here is how that comparison looked for MacArthur.

Player Name

CA20

TMCA20

CA20/TMCA20

MACARTHUR, CLARKE

18.634

19.686

0.947

PARENTEAU, PIERRE

18.782

19.269

0.975

PARISE, ZACH

15.671

15.904

0.985

SYKORA, PETR

14.741

14.567

1.012

MOULSON, MATT

19.445

19.112

1.017

MCGINN, JAMIE

19.053

18.678

1.020

OKPOSO, KYLE

19.398

18.983

1.022

PERRON, DAVID

16.821

16.247

1.035

SIMMONDS, WAYNE

19.346

18.558

1.042

MALONE, RYAN

19.422

18.539

1.048

TLUSTY, JIRI

20.576

19.400

1.061

The list is sorted by CA20/TMCA20 and the lower the number the greater they improved their teammates corsi against rate. In this list, MacArthur comes out on top which is a suggestion that he is probably a good defensive player, or at minimum not a defensive liability. Since Perron, Parise and Sykora have significantly better defensive teammates it is more difficult for them to improve their teammates CA20 so I am not convinced that MacArthur is better than them, but MacArthur’s defensive numbers look good.

So, with that in mind, what is MacArthur worth? Ignoring the Zach Parise comparison, he is probably worth in the $3-4M/yr range. Matt Moulson is in the middle of a 3 year deal worth a little over $3.1M/yr. Okposo is in the second year of a 5 year RFA deal paying him $2.8M/yr. Wayne Simmonds signed a long term extension at just shy of $4M/yr. Parenteau signed as a UFA in Colorado for 4 years at $4M/yr. David Perron signed an RFA deal that pays him an average of just over $3.8M. Ryan Malone is in the middle of a contract that is paying him $4.5M/yr.

For me, I would like to see the Leafs sign MacArthur to a 4 year contract extension, preferably in the $3.5-4M/yr range. That would be a fair contract for both sides.

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Welcome to HockeyAnalysis.com, where I strive to get a better understanding of the game of hockey through the use of statistical analysis. I hope you enjoy whatever time you spend here and maybe even learn a little. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me an e-mail at david (at) hockeyanalysis.com.